The present invention relates generally to the field of data acquisition and communication and specifically to the use of electronic equipment to communicate railcar data among railcars, locomotives, and railway personnel.
In a growing number of applications, railcars are being equipped with electronic communications equipment establishing a data link among railcars, locomotives, and railway personnel. One typical application is an electronic braking system. Rather than relying on brake pipe pressure to initiate railcar braking, electronic braking are transmitted to the railcar's electronic braking system thereby enabling a wider variety of braking strategies useful, for example, in managing slack in the train.
The acceptance by the railroad industry of such railcar electronic communications equipment coupled with the advent of inexpensive local area network (LAN) equipment for acquiring data inside the railcar presents numerous opportunities for communicating new types of railcar data. For example, temperature, pressure, or humidity may be communicated as an aid to monitoring the quality of environmentally sensitive payloads; payload weight, tank level, or bin level may be communicated as an aid to payload management; vibration, bearing temperature, wheel speed, or wheel revolutions may be communicated as an aid to railcar preventive maintenance; and railcar identity may be communicated as an aid to all aspects of railcar management.